1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a signal averaging circuit for use in a system for automatically determining performance characteristics of a sailing boat. The circuit utilizes instantaneous values of speed to generate running averages of boat speed and apparent wind speed to thereby enable a sailor to most efficiently sail the boat at the maximum hull speed under continuously varying conditions.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many attempts have been made toward evaluating the performance of a sailboat in an effort to assure that the sailboat is performing as close to its "hull speed" as possible. It is well understood that sail design, hull design, sea conditions, and wind conditions cooperate in determining the speed of a sailboat. While, as pointed out, the above items determine boat speed, much of this basic information has never been properly checked from an emperical standpoint because there have been no systems employing really meaningful metering equipment. Since the inertia of a sailboat is high, the boat responds to an average wind speed and direction at an average boat speed over any period of time. Readings from instruments which provide instantaneous values of speed produce erroneous calculations of boat performance since an instantaneous value may vary significantly from an average value. Damped instruments are able to provide an average value over a short period of time but are confined to a single value of averaging period.